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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Nasty Noble Savages: The Politics of Hunter/Gatherer Representation

Lempert, Willi D.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1177709502

Abstract Details

2007, Bachelor of Philosophy, Miami University, School Of Interdisciplinary Studies - Interdisciplinary Studies.
This project explores the relationship of hunter/gatherer representation to power relationships in academia, popular culture, and indigenous rights. Hunter/gatherer studies is a controversial subject in which even the most highly skilled experts struggle with basic questions such as who counts as a hunter/gatherer. Meanwhile, a wave of human nature discourse under the name of “evolutionary psychology” has become increasingly popular over the last fifteen years, basing itself on misunderstandings of hunter/gatherer cultures and human evolution. Evolutionary psychologists selectively choose ethnographic data that fits a human nature narrative he or she is comfortable with, reinforcing personal as well as cultural ideology under an illusory cloak of science. However, as opposed to this being a self-aware conspiracy, these researchers genuinely believe the accuracy of their interpretations due to the depth of their ideological assumptions. Indigenous people worldwide are relatively powerless to refute these claims, which insult their cultures and reinforce stereotypes ranging from noble, wise, and frail, to savage, wild, and irrationally violent. Even the political theory driving world politics, most notably realism, is based on these stereotypes taken as human nature. Only in the last few decades has an indigenous rights movements gained momentum, with indigenous peoples reclaiming land, autonomy, and self-representation. This movement has taken hold on many levels, from indigenous owned media outlets all the way to a Declaration of Indigenous Rights that is in the process of being accepted by the United Nations General Assembly. Australian indigenous peoples have dealt with racism since colonization and have created a strong multi-level indigenous rights movement in the last few decades, serving as a case study for the project. This movement is based largely on indigenous artists and media outlets, such as Goolarri Media Corporation where I conducted field research for a month in spring of 2006. Goolarri facilitated cultural understanding through indigenous self-representation as well as political activism in both overt and subtle forms. Indigenous media will be of increasing importance in the emerging indigenous rights movement, as will a critical reexamination in academia and governmental policy of the ways in which one’s own assumptions regarding human nature and origins influence what he or she sees and what (as well as who) gets ignored.
Muriel Blaisdell (Advisor)
78 p.
Anthropology, Cultural

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lempert, W. D. (2007). Nasty Noble Savages: The Politics of Hunter/Gatherer Representation [Undergraduate thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1177709502

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lempert, Willi. Nasty Noble Savages: The Politics of Hunter/Gatherer Representation. 2007. Miami University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1177709502.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lempert, Willi. "Nasty Noble Savages: The Politics of Hunter/Gatherer Representation." Undergraduate thesis, Miami University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1177709502

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

muhonors1177709502
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University Honors Theses and OhioLINK.